Grotowski

Born	Jerzy Grotowski 11 August 1933 Rzeszów, Poland
Died	14 January 1999 (aged 65) Pontedera, Tuscany, Italy
Occupation	Theatre director
Alma mater	Russian Academy of Theatre Arts

Grotowski is famous for creating a technique called "Total Theatre".

"Grotowski pushed his actors to follow their natural instinct, no longer to attempt to pre-edit their inner selves, as a safety from failure, for ultimately this tactic was relatable to imprisonment. Grotowski used his knowledge from limitless theatre forms and ancient philosophies to concentrate a true theory. Theatre in his eyes needed to be reduced down to its purest form, leaving the actor to reveal their raw self to the spectator prompting the same in return."

(http://www.dziecitheatre.org/dzfiles/boss.pdf)

Grotowski made his students go running through the woods (often naked) together. He believed that by bringing the group closer together they'd be more comfortable with each other, therefore the group will work better together as one, producing organic, watchable work. However, Grotowski takes a more concentrated, individualistic style and approach to his work. It is far more free flowing and process focused working from the the ‘inside out’. He believed that you couldn't physically work without being able to feel the emotion first.

Here are a few quotes from Grotowski:

“If you want to create a masterpiece, you must always avoid beautiful lies.” 

“I wasnt political in order to be political”

"Not in order to teach others but to learn with them what our existence, our organism, our personal and repeatable experience have to give us; to learn to break down the barriers which surround us and to free ourselves from the breaks which hold us back, from the lies about ourselves which we manufacture daily for ourselves and for others; to destroy the limitations caused by our ignorance or lack of courage; in short, to fill the emptiness in us: to fulfill ourselves...art is a ripening, an evolution, an uplifting which enables us to emerge from darkness into a blaze of light.”